Reactivating my darkroom

[Rapidrob]

Like many others,the digital age took hold of me and I shut down my darkroom on '04.
Now that I retired I miss the fun of large format and the challenge of the "perfect exposure" and hours in the darkroom developing the film and printing the image.
I fell into LF photography in the late 70's for no other reason than I wanted to print large photographs and murals. 35MM and 2 1/4" just didn't cut it.
The Navy gave me a camera if I would use it for official functions,which I did. Film was free as the format was slowly going away.
Like most photographers the bug got me and I went nuts for many decades. I tried every chem,film and paper you could get your hands on.
Even went so far as to make my own developer and sensitizing papers. You know the grip a darkroom can get on your soul.
Anyway, I dug out the old 4x5 enlarger and after ten hours of putting it all back together as well as a good cleaning, it is ready to go again.
It is a nice diffusion enlarger. Even with twin lamps it is not the brightest light source out there,but it will not warp a negative due to excessive heat.
Twin cooling fans remove all heat. There are no vibrations transmitted to the film plane.
I have whoop-Te-do electronic exposure timers to plug in if I need them. I have most of the negative holders and lens holders made for it. The auto focus cams and lens holders work well. There is a aux bellows attachment as well for non standard lenses.
I'm looking forward to printing images again.

[Michael Clark]

I had one of those heads, mounted it on my D2-V, had beautiful light. Got rid of it after the cellophane filters faded and could not find any replacements. Later ones had diacrhotic glass filters but could not find those also.

[John Layton]

First impression is that this machine should audition to be a Dalek on Dr. Who! But then, there is something so very satisfying about dusting off some old, venerable machine and bringing it back into service. Double nice when considering that this very machine can once again become such a perfect conduit for your own creativity. Another discussion, perhaps...but, to me, the physical aspect of our gear, and the desire to acquire this gear, has more to do with its potential to help facilitate the meaningful flow and evolution of our own creative processes than it does the mere acquisition of "stuff." At any rate...welcome back!

[ic-racer]

If B&W printing you can check your yellow and magenta filters with a 21 step wedge. For example 5 visible steps x .15 = ISO(R) 75, and so on. Rosco CC gels can be cut to size for a few dollars. Or, if you really need #5 printing with as much contrast as possible from the paper, use an Ilford #5 filter in place of the magenta filter.

[Rapidrob]

Thanks for the replies and the tip on the filters.

[EdSawyer]

nice to see it back in action!

[John Kasaian]

A very cool story!
A very cool enlarger!

[Eleven Mile]

Good for you. I too found myself in need of a darkroom fix. Just finished building my new darkroom today. Happy printing.